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013 903 



?!!^ Cost of War and Warfare, 

FROM 1898 TO 1904, 

SEVEN FISCAL YEARS ENDING JUNE }0. 

ONE THOUSAND MILLION DOLLARS 

$1000,000,000. 



A CONTINUATION OF THE PREVIOUS COMPUTATIONS MADE IN 1902 AND 1903 



STATEMENTS COMPILED, COMPUTED AND .^PMOVJ^p.E^Q^^THE 
OFEICIAL REPORTS OF THE GOVERNMENT''' ' ''"'" '' 



EDWARD ATKINSON, LL. D., Ph. D. 

BROOKLINE, MASS., U.S.A. 
January 26, 1904. 



u 






SECOND COMPUTATION, TO JUNE 30, 1903. 

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 9, 1903. 
(THE FIRST COMPUTATION, TO JUNE 30, 1902, PRINTED IN THAT YEAR.) 

^HE cost of war and warfare from 1898 to 1903 inclusive has been over nine hundred 
1 million dollars ($900,000,000). The cost of the war with Spain and of the warfare upon 
the people of the Philippine Islands to the end of the last fiscal year, June 30, 1903, had been 
over eight hundred and fifty million dollars ($850,000,000), — an addition in that fiscal year to /-""^ 
the previous charge upon the taxpayers of this country of not less than one hundred and fifty 
million dollars ($150,000,000). This charge is increasing rather than diminishing. At the 
end of the present calendar year, December 31, 1903, we shall have expended in war and war- 
fare not less than nine hundred and twenty million dollars ($920,000,000), which sum will be 
slighdy in excess of the outstanding bonded debt of the United States bearing interest. Of 
this sum about three hundred million dollars ($300,000,000) is commonly assigned to the cost 
of the war with Spain. - There are no exact data outside the government accounts by which 
this can be apportioneji. 

Over six hundred million dollars ($600,000,000) may be charged by taxpayers to the effort 
to deprive the people of the Philippine Islands of their liberty. The excess of the expenditures 
of this country, due to the warfare in the Philippine Islands with the cost of the increase in the 
regular army and other expenditures engendered by militarism during the fiscal year ending 
June 30, 1903, varied but a fraction from two dollars ($2) per head of the population. 

By dealing with the official figures for the year ending June 30, 1903, we may find the 
exact direction of the waste of taxpayers' money in one more year of oppression in the 
Philippines, of the refusal of liberty, and of futile efforts to redress wrongs previously 
committed. 

The conduct of the work of imposing a form of go\'ernment upon these people without 
their consent has been administered by able and upright men who have used their utmost effort 
to overcome the evil inherent in the conditions. The pretext of developing commerce by holding 
dominion over these islands has ceased to impose upon intelligent people. All that we import 
from the Philippines we may continue to import, whoever holds them, — the principal article, 
hemp, being free of duty. Our insignificant exports have fallen off with the withdrawal of a 
part of the troops and with the increasing disability on the part of the inhabitants to buy even 
articles of necessity, such being the poverty and distress which our rule has brought upon them. 
'The proof of those statements is submitted in the subsequent form, all the figures being derived 
from the official reports of the government. 

For twenty years, from June 30, 1878, to June 30, 1898, covering the administrations of 
Hayes, Arthur. Cleveland (first), Harrison, and Cleveland (second), the averao-e annual 
expenditures on the different branches of the government service per capita were as follows : 

Civil service, including Indians and postal deficiency . . $1.48 

War Department, including fortifications and other similar works .75 

Navy Department, including the construction of what is known 

as the " New Navjr " . . . . . . ^c 

Interest on the public debt ..... .go 

Pensions, including the very heavy increase during the term 

of President Harrison . . . . . . j ^2 

Average ...... $^ 



The expenditures in five years of war and warfare under Presidents McKinley and 
Roosevelt weri- as follows (annual average): — 

Civil service 

War Department . 

Navy Department 

Interest .... 

Pensions .... 

Average 



During the last fiscal year, ending June 30, the expenditures have been as follows (during 
a )-ear of so-called peace) : — 

Civil service 

War Department . 

Nav}' Department 

Interest 

Pensions 

Average 



An excess over the normal of twenty 3-ears of peace, order and industrv of one dollar and 
thirty-five cents ($1.35) per head. 

But this does not show the whole case. During the twenty years prior to the Spanish war 
the cost of pensions and interest was two dollars and fifty-two cents ($2.52) per head. Had it 
not been for debts incurred and pensions to so-called Spanish war veterans, these charges, 
which had been reduced to two dollars and eight cents ($2.08) per head, would not have 
exceeded one dollar and eighty-eight cents ($1.88) in the last fiscal year, the falling in of 
pensions through lapse of time now moving on with accelerating speed. 

These differences per head may seem to be of trifling importance, but when computed on the 
population of June 30, 1903, the customary factor by which expenditures are distributed by the 
Treasury Department, 

The excess of expenditure in the civil service at twenty-nine 

(29) cents per head comes to .... $23,316,000 

The excess of expenditure on the army at seventy -two (72) 

cents per head ...... 57.S88.000 

The excess of expenditure on the navv at sixtv-eight (68) 

cents per head ...... 54,672.000 

The total of actual excess of expenditure during the 
warfare in the Phflippine Islands, and the tendency to 
militarism in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903. . $135,876,000 

If to this be added twenty (20) cents per head, by which 
the interest and pension charge would have been dimin- 
ished except for war and warfare . . . 16,080,000 

We find that the waste in war and warfare in the last fiscal 

year was a fraction less than .... $152,000,000 



The present tendency is to increase rather than to diminish, and when the expenditures of 
the present six months ending December 31, 1903, are audited, the proof will be complete that 
the cost of the war with Spain, which a strong administration would have avoided, and the 
" criminal aggression" upon the people of the Philippine Islands, which a weak administration 
brought upon the country, will have cost the taxpayers nine hundred and twenty million dollars 
($920,000,000), a sum slightly larger than the entire bonded debt of the United States, bearing 
interest, now outstanding. 

The pretext of expansion of commerce in the East in justification of closing the door to 
trade in the Philippine Islands to other nations, while strenuously urging the open door in China 
and other parts of Asia, has been exposed and now excites only derision. In the computation 
of the cost of war and warfare to June 30, 1902, it proved that we had been paying for five 
years one dollar and five cents ($1.05) per head of our population to secure an export which 
amounted to six and one-half (6V2) cents per head, on which there might have been a profit to 
some one at the rate of one cent per head of the whole population. The figures of the last year 
are even more grotesque. The cost of criminal aggression in the Philippine Islands during the 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, was not less than one dollar and a quarter ($1.25) per head, 
after making any allowance that any reasonable man could make for the alleged necessity of 
increasing the army of the United States and building batde-ships to meet other contingencies. 
The exports from the United States to the Philippine Islands have fallen off to less than five 
cents per head of our population : had there been a profit equal to one cent on the five cents they 
would not have fallen off. 

We are still wasting the lives and health of American soldiers and continuing to bring 
poverty and want upon the people of the Philippine Islands under the pretence of "benevolent 
assimilation." 

The effort to suppress the evidence of torture, devastation, and ruin brought upon the 
people of these islands has failed, the facts of "criminal aggression" have been proved. In 
this statement the cost in money to the taxpayers of the United States is now submitted. 

EDWARD ATKINSON. 

Brooklin'e, Mass., October 9, 1903. 



THIRD COMPUTATION, TO JUNE 30, 1Q04. 

(EXTENDED ON GOVERNMENT ESTIMATES, TO JUNE 30, 1905.) 



THE cost of war and warfare to June 30, 1904, computed from the expenditures for six 
months from June 30 to December 31, 1903, and completed by estimate to the end of the 
fiscal year, June 30, 1904, for seven years not less than $1000,000,000. 

Extended by estimates submitted by the Secretary of the Treasury to June 30, 1905. 
In my first analysis of the cost of war and warfare, July 4, 1902, it was proved that the 
average expenditures per head of population for twenty years antecedent to the Spanish war had 
l)een five dollars per head as follows : — 

President Hayes, 1878 to 1881, average . 
President Arthur, 1882 to 1885, average . 
President Cleveland, 1886 to 1889, average 
President Harrison, 1890 to 1893, average 
President Cleveland, 1894 to 1S97. average 

Average for twenty years of peace 

In this period and included in this average is the cost of what was called " the new navy " 
which destroyed the Spanish fleets. 

in the subsequent live years of war and warfare under Mcl'vinlev and Roosevelt it was 
pro\ed that the average expenditures per capita had been $6.61. 

It was proved that the cost of war and warfare up to that date had been at the excess over 

.>|;7oo,ooo,ooo. 

In October, 1903, I prepared a second statement, extending the figures by estimate to 
December 31, 1903, in which it was proved that the cost of war and warfare to that date 
would be over 

$900,000,000. 

The estimates used in that treatise have been more than justified liy the official statements of 
the Secretary of the Treasury in his computations of the expenditures to June 30, 1904, by 
which it appears that the average, per head, of the present j'ear will be $6.29. 

It also ajjpears that the estimates presented by the Departments for the fiscal }-ear ending 
June 30, 1905, if not exceeded, will be $6.76. 

The actual difference between the normal rate previous to the Spanish war and the average 
of $6.58 for seven years of active and passive war and warfare would be, per head, $1.58. 

But during the eight years of Harrison and Cle\eland the cost of pensions and interest was, 
per head, $2.50. 

In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, pensions and interest were less, per head, than 
$2.00. I-^eduction, 50 cents. 

Both charges are now rapidly diminishing and tlie normal cost of government, without war 
and wartare, in 1903 and 1904, estimated at $6.29, would not have exceeded $4.29 on a basis of 
peace, order, industry, and good government, economically administered. 



The cost of passive war and warfare is now over two dollars per head now heing assessed 
on nearly 82,000,000 people, or over $160,000,000. 

On the 30th of June, 1904, the cost of war and warfare, active and passive, will have been 

$1000,000,000, 

and even if the appropriations for the year 1905 are not exceeded at the end of that fiscal year 
it will have been nearly 

$1200,000,000. 

We mav take off $100,000,000 for expenditures now being made of a useful purpose which 
were not made before the Spanish war, such as Irrigation, National Parks, the expansion of the 
Department of Agriculture, and the possibility that the Consular Service may be re-organized, 
with suitable compensation to competent men. 

At the lowest and most conservative estimates it is there- 
fore proved that we have alread}' spent on the Spanish 
war, as computed ..... 

On criminal aggression and passive warfare in the 
Philippine Islands ..... 

Total ..... 

And that before June 30, 1904, the total will stand at not less than 

$1000,000,000. 
It is also proved that unless the spirit of aggressive militarism can be stopped — which now 
costs two dollars ($2) perhead — it will be over two dollars and a half ($2.50) in the fiscal 
j'ear ending June 30, 1905, with a constant tendency to increase as time goes on. 

In order to fix the relative increase in these charges, we may compare the different 
departments under the administration of President Harrison and those of the last fiscal year 
under President Roosevelt. 



Civil Service and Indians 
War . 



$300,000,000 

600,000,000 
$900,000,000 



Navy . 
Interest 
Pensions 



Average 



HARRISON. 


ROOSEVELT 


Per Head. 


Per Head. 


$1.66 


$1.72 


.76 


1.47 


.42 


1.02 


.48 


•35 


2.04 


1-73 


$5.36 


$6.29 



We may next compare the average in President Cleveland's first term with the expenditures 
of the present fiscal year ending June 30, 1904. 



Civil .Service and Indians 

War . 

Navy . 

Interest 

Pensions 

Average 

At the interest and pension rates of 1904 
deduct from the Cleveland figures 
Average 
Difference wasted 




$4.22 



ROOSEVELT. 
Per Head. 

$1-73 

1.40 

1. 17 

.29 



$2.07 



8 

The average expenditures of 1903 and 1904 have been $6.29. The estimates for 1905 
come to $6.76. 

Had these expenditures and estimates been free of the cost of continued aggression in the 
Philippine Ishinds, of the proposed defensive works in the harbors of the Pacific, and the waste 
upon battle-sliips and other killing instruments which form a necessary part of the pplic}^ of 
imperialism and oversea-expansion, the entire cost of the Civil, Military, and Naval Establish- 
ments, Interest, Pensions, Irrigation, Forest Reservations, and support to Agricultural Science 
could not exceed $4.30 in the present fiscal year, and might even be less in the next. 

At ever}- point and by every method that these accounts can be analyzed and fairly stated 
it is proved that the cost of war and warfare has been, is, and will be over two dollars ($2) per 
head on a population now about 82,000,000 and rapidly increasing. 

The taxpa3-ers of the United States are now paying the penalty for the feeble administration 
that brought us into this condition and the forcible, feeble administration that as yet fails to get 
us out, at this rate of two dollars ($2) per head, or ten dollars ($10) per family, or over 

$160,000,000 

per year, lending to increase 

If it is assumed that the liberation of Cuba from oppression could not have been brought 
about without the Spanish war, commonly computed at $300,000,000, then the following 
estimates may be modified. 

If the Spanish war is proved not to have been necessary, then it is proved that with this 
waste of six years of war and criminal aggression, $1000,000,000, the whole bonded debt of the 
United States might have been paid, with a large premium for the purchase of bonds not vet 
matured. 

It may be estimated that, had this money been spent for any useful purpose, many measures 
now contemplated might have been partially or wholly carried out. 

Had we expended in the seven years $200,000,000 on the improvement of rivers and harbors, 
how much more would remain to be done? 

Had we expended $200,000,000 on the irrigation of arid lands, how much would remain 
unproductive? 

Had we made up to the Southern States, for purposes of common education, a stun a little 
more than equal to that which the Western States have derived from the public lands which 
Soutiiern States surrendered to the Nation, which sum is about $65,000,000, b}' assigning 
aid to them of $100,000,000, what would be their present condition in the abatement of illiteracy? 

Had we appropriated only so much money as may be necessary to construct cruisers for the 
protection of commerce, such cruisers being necessary so long as predator}- nations threaten it, 
might we not have saved $100,000,000? 

What could we have done with the other $400,000,000, which we shall have worse than 
wasted before the end of the present year, except to have remitted useless and oppressive, 
obstructive taxes? 

Or if the war with Spain is deemed one tliat could not have lieen avoided, of which tlie 
common estimate of cost is $300,000,000, should we not still have had a surplus of ,$100,000,000 
to be applied to the reduction of taxadon? 

When the cost of our national government is again reduced to tlie average of twenty vears 
before the Spanish war — of five dollars ($5) per head, less at least one dollar ($1 ) per head, or 
to four dollars ($4), for falling in of pensions and interest, as it soon mav be when the waste of 
militarism is stopped — what nation can compete with us in the producti\'e ]->ursuits of peace or 
in the expansion of our commerce with the world? 



If such are the proved conditions, then what does it cost each State or Territory at two 
dollars ($2) per head on the population of the census year 1900, plus two dollars ($2) per head 
on the subsequent increase — the actual cost being more and increasing? 

The following table will show, the computation being made in round thousands, disregarding 
fractions, at the average rate of two dollars ($2), it being remarked that the richer States pay 
more, the poorer States less, because these indirect taxes fall wholly on consumers in proportion 
to their consumption. 

Every family pays its proportion of tliis tax, which is imposed on beer, tobacco, spirits, 
fuel, timber, steel, iron, and other metals, clothing, leather, cordwood, sugar, salt, fish, potatoes, 
and every other article of necessity, comfort, or luxur}^ that is now subjected to a tax or duty. 

Indirect taxes are tolerated because those who pay them are not conscious of the burden- 
They are the resort of rulers who dare not expose their purposes. 

The proportion by States and Territories on the census of 1900 is as follows : — * 



I 


New York 






7,300,000 


$14,600,000 


2 


Pennsylvania 






6,300,000 


1 2,600,000 


3 


Illinois 






4,800,000 


9,600,000 


4 


Ohio 






4,200,000 


8,400,000 


5 


Missouri 






3,100,000 


6,200,000 


6 


Texas . 






3,000,000 


6,000,000 


7 


Massachusetts 






2,800,000 


5,600,000 


8 


Indiana . 






2,500,000 


5,000,000 


9 


Michigan 






2,400,000 


4,800,000 


10 


Kentucky 






2,200,000 


4,400,000 


II 


Georgia 






2,200,000 


4,400,000 


12 


Iowa 






2,200,000 


■ 4,400,000 


13 


Wisconsin 






2,100,000 


4,200,000 


14 


Tennessee 






2,000,000 


4,000,000 


15 


North Carolina 






1,900,000 


3,800,000 


16 


Virginia 






1,900,000 


3,800,000 


17 


New Jerse}- 






1,900,000 


3,800,000 


18 


Alabama 






1,800,000 


3,600,000 


19 


Minnesota 






1,800,000 


3,600,000 


20 


Mississippi 






1,600,000 


3,200,000 


21 


California 






1,500,000 


3,000,000 


22 


Kansas . 






1,500,000 


3,000,000 


23 


South Carolina 






1,400,000 


2,800,000 


24 


Louisiana 






1,400,000 


2,800,000 


25 


Arkansas 






1,300,000 


2,600,000 


26 


Maryland 






1,200,000 


2,400,000 


27 


Nebraska 






1,100,000 


2,200,000 


28 


West Virginia 






1,000,000 


2,000,000 


29 


Connecticut 






900,000 


1,800,000 


30 


Maine 






700,000 


1,400,000 


31 


Washington 






500,000 


1 ,000,000 




Carried forward 




70,500,000 


$141,000,000 



* Increase about seven per cent, on each State to bring the figures to the present population. 





Brought forzvard . 


70,500,000 


$141,000,000 


3^ 


Florida . 


500,000 


1,000,000 


33 


Colorado 


500,000 


1,000,000 


34 


New Hampshire 


400,000 


800,000 


35 


Oregon . . . . 


400,000 


800,000 


36 


Rhode Island 


400,000 


800,000 


37 


Oklahoma 


400,000 


800,000 


38 


Indian Territory 


400,000 


800.000 


39 


Vermont 


350,000 


700,000 


40 


North Dakota 


300,000 


600,000 


41 


Utah 


300,000 


600,000 


42 


Montana 


250,000 


500.000 


43 


Delaware 


200,000 


400.000 


44 


Idaho 


150,000 


300,000 


45 


Wyoming 


100,000 


200,000 


46 


Nevada . . . . 


50,000 


100,000 




75,200,000 


$150,400,000 




Taxes Free 
In 1900 


1,100,000 


2,200,000 




76,300,000 


$152,600,000 




In 1904 


82,000,000 


$ 1 64,000,000 



The increase in population from 1900 to 1904 would be 7 per cent, average, or from i per 
cent, in States from which emigrants pass, to 50 per cent, in Oklahoma, to which they come. 

Now, if the tax gatherer went to the door of every house or to the dwelling place of every 
person, demanding two dollars per head in cash or ten dollars from each average family, how 
long would this waste of warfare and militarism last? 

If this tax of two dollars per head, or over $160,000,000 a year, were assessed directly upon 
the States according to law, to be collected mainly by a direct tax on property, or by a poll tax, 
how soon would it be abated? Before a single Congressional term had ended would not this 
waste be stopped, or every member who refused to stop it be relegated to a position where he 
could abuse a public trust no more ? 

With these questions, soon to be answered at the polls, I submit these computations to 
an anxious public, now constantly seeking for solution, and to sagacious politicians who are 
trying to save the Nation from further dishonor and reckless waste on oversea-expansion and 
imperialism. 

Respectfully submitted, 



EDWARD ATKINSON. 



Boston, Mass., January 23, 1904. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 903 972 5 



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